Lhasa embroiderer goes to Changzhou to “learn Buddhist scriptures”
The needle and thread are “flying” in Bianba Quzhen’s hands. She skillfully makes a gourd-shaped sachet that means auspiciousness. “I learned embroidery, buttoning, tie-dying, and sachet making in Changzhou. , random stitch embroidery and other techniques.” This Lhasa embroiderer hopes to fill the sachets she made with Tibetan medicine and give them to her family.
Thirty-one-year-old Bianba Quzhen is a member of the Linzhou Zongxue Women’s Textile Farmers Professional Cooperative in Lhasa, Tibet. After the cooperative was established in 2016, her ingenuity became the “main force”. She and her colleagues subsidized their families by processing blankets and carpets.
In September this year, staff from the Lhasa Women’s Federation approached Bianba Quzhen and told her that Changzhou Textile and Garment Vocational and Technical College in Jiangsu Province, thousands of miles away, would conduct a half-month “Hand Knitting and Practical Skills” training. Bianba Quzhen was very excited when she heard that she could learn new techniques in weaving and other aspects.
On October 9, Bianba Quzhen and 17 other Tibetan compatriots traveled from Lhasa to Changzhou. This was the first time she left her hometown.
The School of Continuing Education of Changzhou Textile and Clothing Vocational and Technical College has done a lot of “homework” in advance. They learned that Tibetan compatriots are more accustomed to eating beef and mutton, so they contacted the canteen in advance to plan their daily recipes. Late at night, Bianba Quzhen, who had been running around all day, had just arrived at school and had a hot meal, which “tasted very well.”
In addition, the school also fully considers the actual situation of Tibetan compatriots in curriculum design and integrates traditional handicrafts such as tie-dyeing and embroidery into teaching activities. Bianba Quzhen listened carefully to the class and even took the initiative to act as a translator for the older Tibetan compatriots.
In class, Bianba Quzhen’s “imagination opened up” – can tie-dye and embroidery techniques be applied to the production of blankets with Tibetan characteristics? Add alpine design elements and these blankets will look majestic. She also offered to take a closer look at the process of making embroidery works by traditional craft masters.
With the contact of the school, Bianba Quzhen came to Changzhou Institute of Arts and Crafts to visit and learn the production process of Changzhou’s “Three Treasures”, the national intangible cultural heritage such as combing grate, random stitch embroidery, and green bamboo carving.
The teacher of the school’s dyeing and weaving art design teaching and research section and the person in charge of the art design major also led Bianba Quzhen to experience the basic stitching techniques of “random stitch embroidery”. Under the step-by-step instruction, Bianba Quzhen learned quickly, and she even successfully embroidered a small pattern on a T-shirt.
“We will adjust the course content in a targeted manner according to the actual progress.” The person in charge of the School of Continuing Education of the school said that after the course was carried out for a period of time, the embroidery level of 18 Tibetan compatriots has been significantly improved. But when it comes to modern textiles, they say that they have almost never been to a factory floor and do not understand the process of industrial textiles.
As a result, the school got in touch with a local textile factory in Changzhou, and Bianba Quzhen walked into a modern textile factory for the first time. In a large workshop, dozens of machines are rumbling, processing exquisite clothing at a rapid speed. Bianba Quzhen was surprised to find that such a large workshop only requires two workers to operate it.
“Two people can actually do so much work!” Bianba Quzhen thought to herself: If one day, the cooperative can also have such advanced machines, then we can make more blankets.
On October 23, Bianba Quzhen returned to her hometown “successful in her studies”. Within the cooperative, she taught local women the skills she learned during the training. Seeing the embroidery needle constantly “doing magic” in Bianba Quzhen’s hands, the fellow villagers were full of envy: “We must also hurry up and learn.”
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